Flexoelectric effect of a rod-like nematic liquid crystal doped with highly-kinked bent-core molecules for energy converting components

Abstract

The flexoelectric effect of a rod-like nematic liquid crystal (pentyl-cyanobiphenyl, 5CB) doped with bent-core liquid crystals with a high kink angle ∼130° was studied. Although the previous theoretical models predicted that such highly-kinked molecules with a longitudinal dipole moment would have no significant influence on the flexoelectric effect, the 5CB mixture doped with 7.0 wt% bent-core liquid crystal with a longitudinal dipole moment showed greater flexoelectric anisotropy 37.2 pC m⁻¹ compared to the pure 5CB 10.3 pC m⁻¹. From the small angle X-ray scattering experiments, the bent-core liquid crystal was found to form local domains surrounded with 5CB molecules and the varied orientation and shape of the assembled complexes were considered to be related to the greater flexoelectric anisotropy.